I can't see his show lasting very long. Not that most of the winners have a very good track record on the network, anyway... I don't watch Food Network much anymore, but I can say I would never be interested in watching his show.

Whatever happened to the guy who won last year? He actually seemed talented.

Wow, thanks for the heads up on that. I guess it shouldn't be surprising, except that you'd think Food Network could do a better job of investigating the social media/online history of their contestants?

Guy Fieri also has a lot of fairly negative rumors around him - however in both cases it isn't this well documented social media record where there's any kind of deniability. It's also not the case of one stray tweet, interview, video where you can say "this was a horrible lapse in judgment/I'm going to rehab/oops".

Just the extensive level of vulgarity and FN's strong family friendly branding, it'd be hard to imagine how that could be rehabbed.

If FNS didn't just commit a major vetting woops - here are my cynical thoughts:1 - they wanted to keep FNS but not actually produce a show and this gave them an easy out for not giving the "winner" a show. 2 - they assumed that as the shows of the winners haven't done so well overall, that either controversy might gain more viewers or that general interest of the winner's show is just so low it doesn't matter.3 - Lenny's existing fan base was/is already so large that it just didn't matter and he was always going to win. I mean, personally I find the Pioneer Woman dreadful on television and her recipes *yawn* - but she clearly had a huge existing audience prior to the show and has kept/grown that audience.

<<Here is a rundown of some of the comments, videos, and controversial things that Lenny has posted on the internet in the past:

WARNING - A lot of bad language below and NSFW videos due to language.

Lenny had a video on his Youtube page that was recently taken down as so many people were talking about how crude it was. He was cursing while cutting brisket, and the video included words such as the big C word.Lenny posts as ChuckWagonCook on the Ron and Fez forums, and when he announced he was going to be on Food Network Star, he posted a teaser saying:Without everyone out here...I would never of been out...............here?

As you know (or might not)...I was on Guy's Grocery Games this last year. Episode entitled "The Ol Switch-a-Roo" I ended up losing due to my undercooked lamb.

But that's not the point. Albeit it is a good point. At least for this thread....but still not the point.

The point I am getting at is this.

Years ago when I was phoning in to the Ron and Fez Show I knew that i had a certain "sticky" factor. (yes...like cum)...and I knew that stardom was in my future. I'm not trying to be arrogant or pompous...I just felt it.....just felt it.

I will be on Food Networks new season of.........wait for it.......So now I have a REALLY BIG ANNOUNCEMENT for everyone......Someone commented, "He's taking over The Pioneer Woman show from the fake cowgirl Ree Drummond," and Lenny responded to that with:"I'd fuck her...IN THE ASS!!!!!! that's right...I said it!!!"When someone pointed out a typo to him, Lenny responded, "Thanks Andrew....and BTW typo is actually my middle name. Leonard Typo McNab. It's a black thing." His profile one of the Ron and Fez forums says "I'm a fat fuck", and he has over 6000 posts if you want to root through them (You only need a valid email address to join). Here is a season long thread of people on the forums rooting for Lenny.

Lenny also has a Photobucket account under the name chuckwagoncook_2008 with odd and random videos>>

It's just so extensive. Not wanting to open the can of worms over whether or not Adam Richman should have been fired - but his incident was basically all around one situation and while I think he could have/should have shown better judgment, it was just one incident. This is just a lot.

I agree- this creepiness was a known quantity going in.I can't believe no one caught this.

As I said before, there was a winner, or almost winner, who I believe was in the U.S. service, who lied about his resume.The FN execs thought that was enough to disqualify him, and Amy got her show until she quit.

I'd rather have seen Baby Jane win than Lenny, especially after this revelation.

Jag was a fan favourite and then in the middle of the show he "resigned" when his exaggerated military service was brought to light at that point Amy who had been "sent home" was brought back. Amy ended up winning she quit to go live in France.

he is in what looks like an apartment kitchen with hipster glasses on and this big smoked brisket on the counter he has a friend there who is doing the filming and he is describing the brisket...with no cowboy accent i might add... to this camera person it is litterallllllly food porn. it was called "Lenny cutting the brisket"

I think Luca has a wider range than that. He made branzino for his last challenge. It really doesn't matter who wins. Food Network has given shows to non-winners like the sandwich guy (did he actually win? maybe he did and I can't remember anymore), Kelsey. And being a winner doesn't mean anything either. Other than Guy and Melissa, who else is on TV?

LOL, Lenny does look deranged. He would do well w/ a crazy puppet sidekick.

The thing that has impressed me most about Jeff is he came into the competition with a fully-formed idea for a show and is still doing it. Try as I might, I can't watch him though. He seems like a nice enough guy and, yes, sincere, but I find him to be more immature and juvenile than goofy.

Strongly disliked Damaris during her season. Haven't watched her even once. I actually do like watching Melissa D'arabian once in awhile. I usually do pick up a tip or two. I find Aaron McCargo Jr. so very awkward. Is he still around? Don't watch him. I feel the same about Aarti as I do about Damaris, although, I am always very curious about her recipes. They shuttled her off to cooking channel for awhile. I'm not sure what she's doing now.

I did not care for Damaris at all but I was flipping channels and there she was, teaching her uncle to cook lamb. She was charming, and imparted useful information.

I remember Susie and Bob asking Jeff if he could really do a show all about sandwiches. Everybody questioned him on this. "Have a point of view" is what they yell at everyone. Show up with a point of view and "it's too narrow." It took me that long to hate FNS.

I watch The Kitchen. I like it, and Jeff is a good fit for that group. Now they've all calmed down a little (Sunny finally stopped yelling (she's at least yelling less often), Katie seems to have gotten a voice coach, and Geoffrey and Marcela were always fine as they were). Jeff seems to be the goofy brother to them all, and sometimes it works. Sometime I fast-forward to the drinks recipes.

I happened across Demaris giving tips on making popcorn (I know, not rocket science) but she gave some ideas I hadn't heard before on how to do it the old-fashioned way without burning it. (I use an air popper)

So, I fell down an internet rabbit hole last night. I was searching for something about Jean Anderson which led me to something about Sara Moulton which led me to an update about Melissa D'Arabian.

Apparently, her $10 dinners and her Lose 5 lbs shows have both been canceled. Starting last fall she did a web series for foodnetwork.com called "The Picky Eater Project" which seemed to be coupled with some blogging for them, too. She's got another book coming out in December ("Supermarket Healthy"). And, there's the major BRAVA! moment: she's just started writing an AP column, taking over Healthy Plate from Sara Moulton! http://www.ap.org/Content/Press-Relea... (Sara, for those of you who follow her, is taking on a new column called KitchenWise.)

You know, there's been a lot of talk on Chowhound about Americanizing the pronunciation of words from other languages. I can see the arguments on both side for the name of a food. But I would think that a family NAME should be pronounced correctly, don't you?

EDIT: I just had a terrible thought - you don't think that FN would Americanize the pronunciation of her name in order to continue talking down to their audience, do you?

The family NAME should be pronounced as the family wants it, not how some language geek thinks it should. My family name was Americanized when it passed through Ellis Island, though more in spelling than pronunciation. But I'm not going revert to the original Danish in the name of 'authenticity'.

While US town name pronunciations still can give me giggles - family names I agree go with the family pronunciation. When I lived in Israel, the Hebrew spelling of my Americanized German surname (Bowman) reverted to a more German/Israeli pronunciation (think more like Bauman). After correcting people a few times, it was just a case of "forget it - in Hebrew, this is it". Were I to have lived/had children in Israel - that would have been how they would be raised pronouncing it.

You're absolutely right. It's their right. And it's my right to be (now quietly) irritated.

The whole D' thing just niggles at me, though. Why would one say the name of the letter rather than the sound of letter "D" here? Is this another one of those East Coast Italian-American pronunciation oddities, like "mootzarell"?

Yes, Sandwich Guy is on The Kitchen with Sunny Anderson and Marcella Valladoilid (??) both of whose shows have also been cancelled. FN has really cleaned house. Even Aunt Sandy is without a show these days.

Primetime competitions and daytime cooking shows do not compete with each other. They occupy different slots and appeal to different markets.

I haven't looked at it closely, but I think cooking shows normally have a shorter run than competitions, even if the premise and execution is good. It is harder to maintain a freshness and variety when one person carries most of the load (at least in front of the camera).

Today's schedule is heavy with Giada, Contessa and PW - but I also see Claire, Sandra, Melissa, Anne, and Rachael. And right on the edge of primetime, last year's FNS.